"We do not wish to fight," the Hand said. "We wish only to end the threat these creatures pose. Do you truly not desire the same?"
"What we desire is none of your concern," the Silver Rank, Commander Onai, said again with deceptive calm. Felix could hear the woman's heartbeat and Spirit, and both were raging for violence. All of the Guilders were on the edge of it, ready for things to begin.
"Listen, why don't we take it out together? Help is appreciated. Just," Felix looked around. "Just be careful. Monsters are close and we don't know what will wake them."
"You think us afraid of these beasts?" The Silver Rank shouted, her rage clearly boiling over. "We've waded through the blood of hundreds to get here, and a few more won't stop me from claiming that Gold Chest."
Like a magic incantation, mention of the Quest reward sent Spirits spiralling higher and the scales tipping further toward conflict. But the noise did something else as well. Beneath his feet, Felix felt...movement. He looked at Bodie and the Hand, and they nodded. They felt it too.
God damn it.
"Fine," Felix said, throwing his hands up. "You win. We'll just walk away and you can have all theall the glory, or whatever you want. It's right through there." He gestured at the pump station doors.
"What we want is the loot, kid," their Commander said to him, though she spared a quick, greedy glance at the unhinged doors. "Now I don't know if this Iron Rank is spittin' shit or not, but if you're the Fiend, I ain't trustin' you at my back. She's right about one thing: the Fiend got us into this mess. You're comin' with me."
The brute force of the Silver Rank's aura manifested and pressed down on Felix. It was like she was leveraging emotion and something else; a weight to her presence that he couldn't quantify. Felix had felt auras like it before, many far worse. Onai's lacked some tooth in comparison to the Ravager King.
"Truly? You are attempting this?" The Hand asked, but the pressure against their senses only redoubled as Onai sneered at them.
"Try and stop me, fancy boy."
Reed slashed his bare hand into the air, and it was as if a sharpened blade sliced at the aura. The Silver Rank's pressure vanished instantly, and she stumbled backward, her nose bloody. The Hand smiled, wide and bright, and Felix felt a quiver fear rattle through his own Spirit.
Holy shit. That was just his hand. Felix watched the Guilders as if in slow motion, his own Perception coupled with his Intelligence overclocking his system for a brief burst. Is that why he's called that? That's dumb
An absolute wave of stone and ice and fire swept toward the three of them as nearly thirty Guilders unleashed their Skills all at once.
"Everlasting Bulwark!"
A wave of dust and fine powder broke free from the cobbles, launching upward to form a thickened sheet of sand. Ice and flame hit it, burning parts of it away, but it was replenished almost immediately. Felix blinked and Bodie laughed. "Don't make me wait all day, Felix! Go and kick some ass so I can drop this thing!"
Felix grinned.
Sovereign of Flesh!
His smile shattered as his human teeth were replaced by jagged fangs while his bones and skin crawled and snapped. Felix through himself up and over the Everlasting Bulwark, easily leaping the fifteen feet height and met three Guilders with the same idea.
Reign of Vellus!
Reign of Vellus!
Dual casted bolts of kinetic force and lightning slammed forward with all the subtlety of a thunderstorm on a cloudless day. The two Guilders, Bronze Ranks both, were catapulted backward and Felix landed amid a literal firestorm.
Onai the Silver Rank had recovered from her brief lapse, and had charged straight at Reed, her massive sword bearing down upon his own blade. Each swing sent shudders through the air and ground, and scattered the half-hearted Mana Skills that aimed for the pair, among them Sparkbolts.
Meanwhile, red flames bloomed outward all around Felix, and more were on their way. Charging across the square were the two hundred men and women he'd arrived with, each bearing a heavy metal shield and absolutely brimming with Skills that sparked and dazzled his Manasight. Felix laughed and swiped out with his talons, catching another Bronze Rank across his armor and hurling him to the side. Their faces twisted in horror at the sight of his dark scales and odd, cyan markings, even through his simple clothing.
"Up the steps! Now!" Lilian shouted, and the majority of the Guilders obeyed, scattering from Felix's claws. "Dabney!"
A rock the size and density of a cannonball blasted Felix in the chest, and drove him directly into the ground.
"HUAGH!"
The cobbles shattered beneath Felix and something cracked inside his chest. Blood flooded his mouth, but it only stained his teeth, his Transcendent Skill already busy replenishing his Health as the expense of his Essence store. Three more boulders fell from on high, but this time Felix dodged out of the way, and peered up at the source. Dabney had his hand outstretched and a Mana potion tipped up to his lips.
"Not so tough now, are you?!" Dabney moved his hands strangely and a glowing sigil appeared. Felix blinked. It meant 'slide.' "This is for the Domain!"
"I didn't do anything to you!"
An explosion of dusty brown Mana ripped from Dabney's channels before it was sucked up into the very building he stood atop. Simultaneously, the building itself began to tremble and great fissures burst apart its edifice.
"Avalanche!"
Great.